for angels to die
by EpicChocolate
Summary: "Do you not get it! I'm blind. BLIND." "And don't you get it? I'm not leaving that easily." Reyna/Nico
1. Chapter 1

****_for angels to die  
_**Summary** - "Do you not get it?! I'm blind. BLIND." "And don't you get it? I'm not leaving that easily." Reyna/Nico  
**Notes** – I blame Ed Sheeran. Since oh my god, his songs... (And yeah, I know '_The A Team_' is about a girl...)

_'Its too cold outside for angels to fly'_

The moment Nico wakes up, Reyna knows something has gone wrong. He doesn't look around like he normally does or even sit up, just lays motionless. She wouldn't know he was awake if he didn't squeeze her hand, so softly that she would of missed it if she hadn't been waiting for it for hours upon hours.

"Reyna?"he asks, his voice cracking from disuse and normally, she would tease him endlessly about that fact but now, she can't, worry taking over every cell in her body.

"Yeah?"

"Everything is dark. Did you turn off the lights?"he asks and her body tenses up, her grip tightening so hard on his hand that she's almost sure that she's broken it. If he's noticed, he gives no reaction, his eyes flickering around everywhere, trying to catch sight of something that won't be there. Her throat is dry and the urge to cry rises up in her body, only the reminder that she's praetor keeping her from sobbing.

"The l-lights are on, Nico,"she manages, cursing herself for stuttering, and his eyes look towards her face, blank and empty. They're a milky-white, startling her with their blankness. She's so use to his dark eyes that seeing the exact opposite on his face almost scares her.

"Stop lying."

"Do you know how much I wish I was?"

XxXxX

_The buzzing in his ear blocks out the noise and Nico isn't sure if he's grateful or not. It blocks out the screaming and sobbing but it means that death is all around him, that people are dropping like flies around him and he's being kept alive for a reason._

_'You'll help raise Gaea' A light, feminine voice had told him when he had been tossed into the cell, and when he had replied with 'Like hell I will', they had kicked him in the gut, air rushing out of him. He's lost track of the amount he's been in here and spends his time glaring at the wall, thinking about Reyna holding the weight of Camp Jupiter by herself, Percy on a quest with no memories, and Hazel going on a quest that could mean her death. He wonders if they're being strong or cracking under the pressure like he would. _

_When the door opens and the light streams in, it takes all he has to not scream from the pain burning his retinas. A woman stands in the doorway, smiling at him and as she strides over, he tries to kick her and bites her hand when she reaches up to unlock him from the chains holding him against the wall._

_She only smiles._

XxXxX

"Well, its not that bad,"Nico tells her as he stumbles over yet _another_ step and Reyna sighs, tightening her grip on his arm.

"I think I'll give you Aurum to watch out for you,"she says and he makes a face, sticking to her like glue.

"Those dogs hate me. I think its because they saw me kiss you,"he says and she rolls his eyes before remembering that he can't see her. That will take time to adjust to...

"I rolled my eyes,"she informs him and he shrugs, grinning.

"I kinda figured." They're quiet afterwards and normally she would revel in it, thankful that he managed to shut up for one. But now, it seems empty and awkward, reminding her of the barrier that keeps her from reaching him. It had always been there, walls he had put up to keep him safe from more heartache. But Jackson had wormed his way in. Hazel had wormed her way. _She_ had wormed her way in. And she would do it again if she had to.

XxXxX

_The buzzing reaches a lull and Nico tries his best to curl in a ball as he's being dragged, trying to cover up his ears but the woman won't let him. She keeps her nails digging into his arm, drawing blood, and all she can do is smile. He wonders if she's sick or twisted or Gaea has done something. To keep his faith in humanity, he hopes and prays that its the second._

_She turns a corner and go through another room, and the screams go away. Its quiet and that horrifies him. The screaming and sobbing has been a constant and without it, it feels almost _too_ quiet. Almost as if something is hiding the darkness, waiting to pounce on him._

_The moment Nico sees the dark, swirling hole, he knows that it can only go down._

XxXxX

"How?"is the first thing she asks one morning when she wakes up and finds him awake on the couch, flipping through the channels absentmindedly. Nico shrugs, something that he's been a lot of, Reyna notices. Sighing, she sits down next to him, trying to read his expression. He shows nothing, keeping his face tight and expressionless, and normally, she'd be proud of that. It was trait that allowed even the weakest to go toe-to-toe with the very best. But now, all she wants to do is kick him.

"Why haven't you left yet?"he eventually asks when they're watching an episode of _The New Normal_, not even a smile on their faces as they watch the strange antics. Reyna turns towards him, her arms crossed.

"Why? Do you want me to leave?"she demands, her ire growing. He's been acting different for the past weeks, even if it was to be expected from going blind. Still, some of it was drastic.

"Well, I'm not sure if you've noticed but I'm blind. You know, I can't see a thing. I can't tell you what your eye color is if I tried. I can't fight now. I can't do a damn thing. Because I'm BLIND."

"_So?!_ Do you really think those are good reasons?! You know my eye color! You've seen it before! You can fight! We'll teach you how! Its a practice to cover our eyes during sword training, you know. And can't do a damn thing? There's still things you can do, Nico. Stop laying around in your self-loathing!" She's yelling now, fighting back the tears, and he looks ready to flip the coffee table over.

"Don't you get it?! I'm blind! BLIND!"he shouts and she shoves him against the couch, knocking Nico over to his back.

"And don't _you _get it?! I'm not leaving that easily."

XxXxX

"_Do it or we'll kill everyone. Every life you cherish will burn. And you'll have to watch it happen,"the woman whispers as she pushes a knife and book towards him. Nico glares at her, eying the book suspiciously. Its in Greek and Latin, switching back and forth, and as he reads in his mind, he realizes with horror that this will be what brings Gaea. He will the one to make it happen. "The sacrifices have already happened. Now, we just need the words and the blood given willingly from a Child of the Underworld."the woman tells him, smirking devilishly, and Nico suddenly remembers the nonstop buzzing, the screaming and sobbing. All of those deaths... He shivers as the cry of a child echoes in his mind._

"_Do it! Or watch everyone burn in front of you!"the woman screeches, giving him a swift kick. He hears a devastating crack and knows without a doubt that one of his ribs have broken. The woman only gives him another smirk and pushes the book towards him again, her face growing more and more eager "Read. Or you'll have to watch the deaths of those you love." As he picks up the knife, he looks up at her, defiance glinting in his dark eyes._

"_I don't have to watch,"he says before bring the knife up to his eyes and slashing across._

_He only regrets that the woman's face is the last thing he ever saw._

XxXxX

**Notes – HA. PLOT TWIST.**

**WHAT NOW, SON?!  
Did I get any of you? Or have I failed? ;A;**

**So, I might continue this since I kinda like it but I'm leaving as completed for now unless I get a nice response. (Hinthintwinkwink) **

**MARK OF ATHENA DUDES.**

**ITS COMING.**

**ITS COMINGGGGGGGGGG**

**(And I'm going to one of the stops on the book tour :3)**

**(Also, don't ask me how Nico survived. I don't know. Someone had a change of heart...)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes** – You guys are spectacular, oh my god. Let me love everyone of you.

Ed Sheeran is _the_ ginger Jesus.

(And because Mark of Athena, this is officially AU. Booyah.

Also, please forgive me for not updating – and returning with something insanely short – for like what? Four months...?)

* * *

_'Give me love like never before,_

_'Cause lately I've been craving more.'_

* * *

Reyna thinks of him when she lays in bed after work and the hours of training. Its never the romantic dreams that she use to have or the memories on repeat when he was missing but the absolute fear when Percy appeared at the service tunnel, bleeding profusely, with Nico slung over his shoulder, barely clinging to life. She still remembers the numb feeling she had as she ran next to the Apollo children as they rushed them to the infirmary. His face still haunts her dreams, the peaceful, almost _dead_, look that almost broke her but she was still the praetor and in the cold sterile infirmary, people were still watching her out of the corner of their eye. She knew that at least two of them were Octavian's supporters and if she cracked here, her facade out in public would soon be next.

So, she gathered up what willpower she had left and walked away, turning her back on the person who needed her most at the New Rome will always come first to her until a time she is allowed to step down and live like a normal person. Right now, Nico isn't fit for her world of war and he painfully reminds her of that when he walks into tables and walls or trips over Aurum. But, he can be the reason she stays in it (Even if he's the reason she wants to leave).

"_I...I got blinded there. I fought back so in retaliation, the guy holding me slashed my eyes. It wasn't until we got to our location that he learned I needed to see for what I had to do so they kicked me out and left me to die."_His wobbling voice reverberates in her mind and she clenches her fists, sitting up in her bed and staring at the wall that separates her and him.

She wasn't there to protect him but she can try her damnedest to avenge him.

XxXxX

Nico wonders if he should tell her the truth behind his blindness but it doesn't take much to know that she'll be furious. The soldier in her will be pleased to know that he went above and beyond what normal people would do to stop Gaea but the girlfriend in her will kick his ass a week into the future. He had created a whole _story_ on how he had fought back and been blinded for his efforts. She never took lightly to being lied to and this was something she was not going to compromise on. Even if the reason he hid it from her was because he didn't have the courage to flatout say _"Hey, you know how I'll never be able to see again and I told you it was because of some horrible guard? Yeah, I lied. I was the one who destroyed my eyes and all chances of me fighting seriously. Now, whats for lunch?"_

He can just see her stomping him into the ground, screaming bloody murder and swearing to end his life in a way that even the Mongols would cringe at. Or maybe he's more scared of the disappointment that would be sure to follow. Reyna wasn't an explosive anger person – like Percy who let his rage bottle up inside him before releasing it in one dangerous moment – but more of the silent wrath. She wouldn't flat out attack you (If that was what she did, Octavian would have been dead a long time ago) but instead, plan her revenge sneakily and more hurtful than any stab wound. She would drag it out for a long as she could or as long as it took for the victim to come crawling up and plead for mercy. She was a _Roman_. He still remembered hearing his old history teachers bringing down the fantasies of people who had visions of romantic roman times with a quick reminder that their favorite game was watching people beat each other to death.

They played _battleship_. With real ships.*

Sure, Reyna wasn't the normal bloodthirsty Roman that countless of movies and books had trained him to think they were but if pushed to her limit, she could easily make the transition. Bobby and Dakota had told stories of how the reason she had become praetor was because she single-handedly took down an entire camp full of enemy soldiers to save Gwen who had been stolen as a prisoner of war. She was willing to go to hell and back for people she cared about and Nico has the sinking suspicion that her fatal flaw is the same as Percy's. Though for her, as a Roman, its nearly twice as deadly.

So he's left with two choices that seem impossibly grim to him. One option is that he lives the lie and lets her rip the enemy – and possibly herself – apart in an attempt to avenge his lost vision. The other is to tell her the truth and face the disappointment and anger that he had lied to her face.

Either way he goes, he's left with the feeling that he'll be royally screwed.

XxXxX

"Romans are badasses with a dash of insanity,"Nico whistles as the sound of an old man narrating a documentary floats to his ears and Reyna nods, not even bothering to look up from her book. "Even good ole' Caligula wa-"

"Don't even bring him up,"she snaps, her cheeks flushing a light red and the son of Hades can't help grin. It was the response he always got when he brought up the most insane emperor to ever have ruled Rome – a quick reply somewhere along the line of _"SHUT UP NOW" _and quickly changing the subject to Caesar to try and cover up the mar on Roman history.

"You gotta admit though, he must of been on _something_ to declare war on the ocean. I'm sure Poseid- Neptune was very indignant,"Nico stutters through his sentence, scolding himself for forgetting to use Roman terms but Reyna simply glowers at him, her eyes narrowing as she looks over her book.

"Don't you e-"

"Did you guys win that war, by the way?" There's a beat of silence where they stare at each other before she picks up the throw pillow and whacks him with it, her lips twitching with a smile.

"Of course we did,"she scoffs and Nico can't help but grin at her offended tone and slung his arm around her, ignoring her grumbles of "You can't just bring up Caligula like that..." and turned his ears to the documentary (Which was now talking about some dude named Densus who fought 1,000 people to try and save the emperor). Maybe in the next few weeks (Most likely years), he'd gain the courage to tell the truth to Reyna. But for now, he was content for just sitting and listening to an old guy tell about the wonders and sheer strength of the Roman Empire.

* * *

**Notes** – I kept getting distracted... And halfway through some really nice parts, I suddenly remembered _"Wait! Nico's blind! So he can't do that!"_ and have to scrap some parts. Also, a the documentary facts are all true. Oh yeah, I've just blown your mind with the sheer badassery of the Roman Empire.

*This is actually true and pretty badass if we're being serious here. Romans would acttually fill up a amphitheater with water and have naval battles in it for show.


End file.
